Scripture

Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Now on to the sermon

Enduring Hardship

“God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.” --Martin Luther

The wise person does not focus on his or her problems… we all know people that we would never ask, “How are you doing?” because they would tell us and tell us and tell us! I love the attitude of the older gentleman that went to his doctor's office for a follow-up exam. The nurse greeted him pleasantly, then asked him if he'd had any trouble since his last visit. After pondering her question for a moment, he replied, “Now that you mention it, I did have a flat tire a couple of weeks ago.” -Betty Rill Webster-Bishop, Hampton, FL., Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."

Please read the scripture, then return here for the sermon.

Life itself is a life-long race to become all that we can be. When you were born everybody in the room looked anxiously to see if you would breathe on your own. Then they watched your color carefully… and you were off and running!

When you received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior you got involved in a second race… the Christian race. Both races can be difficult at times, and the temptation to sin is like a dog barking at your heels all of the time. The secret to success is focus.

The scriptures teach us to run this race with perseverance – “patient endurance.” Friday evening I watched the Nebraska-Colorado football game with our son Chris. It was a great game, unless you are a Nebraska fan, then it was a disaster. Since I didn’t have an emotional attachment to either team it was fun just to watch the game itself. What I noticed the most was the strength of some of the Colorado players. It was obvious that the long hours on the weight machines had paid off wonderfully for them. They had power! Awesome power at times. Another thing that caught my attention was their determination to win. In any sporting event the momentum will move from team to team. The secret is to keep the momentum and then capitalize on it. Our race as Christians in 2001 is no different than the race the Christians ran in the Old Testament. That is why verse 1 says, “We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.” In many ways the Christian race is like a relay race. Hebrews 11:40 “…so that only together with us would they (the Old Testament believers) be made perfect.”

The Christian race is successful if we learn to throw off the sins that impede us (drag us down). This is done when we focus on Christ. The Promise Keepers meeting earlier this month was one of the most powerful meetings that I have ever attended. God did a work in me that I had been asking Him to do for many years. It was awesome!

What did He do? He helped me die to myself! One of the speakers told of being called to pastor a new church in Dallas many years ago. He is a Mexican and was called to pastor a newly formed Hispanic church. They were still meeting in a house in the rougher part of Dallas. He was from another city and as he drove through this rough neighborhood he was seized with a spirit of fear – panic might be a better word! Finally he just stopped his car right in the middle of the street and prayed, “Now God, how can I pastor these people if I am so scared that I can’t find the house? You’ve got to help me!”

As he bowed his head in prayer he assumed that the Lord would bring some scriptures of comfort to his mind. That didn’t happen! Instead of hearing, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” or “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” or “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” he heard a totally different idea! Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He responded to the Lord, “I didn’t want to hear that!” The word that came back to him was, “If you will die to yourself I can take you as a dead man to places that I never could as a live man.”

How did this translate to real life? Several years later he was heading up a mission trip in the Philippines. A man driving too fast ran a red light in Manila and struck the speaker’s eight-year-old-daughter. As he ran to pick up her limp body his first impulse was to choke the man who had done this terrible thing! As he picked her up the driver ran up to him… he said that he was thinking some ugly words to use, but what came out of his mouth was, “Don’t worry. Melody believes in Jesus and she is going to be all right!” When he said that his daughter opened her eyes and said, “Daddy!”

Later his daughter asked how he knew that she would be okay. He told her that God had put it in his heart to believe it.

When he told the story to his church after they returned to the United States he confessed that he wanted to hurt the driver. After the service one of the men who had traveled with him said, “I am glad you told us how you really felt. We could see the anger in your eyes when it happened.”

Dying to self paid off big! When I returned to my motel room I had a “funeral service” for Leon Seaton. I mentally put myself in a coffin, closed the lid and put it in a hole in the ground. Then I covered it with dirt and walked away. NOW when some of those old temptations come my way I just say, “No… that man died. I am now alive in Christ.” As a result, handling conflict and disappointments has gotten easier.

The Christian race is run by throwing off the sins that slow us down and by fixing our eyes on Jesus. As we focus on Jesus as our role model we are able to do the things that He did – if He kept going in spite of criticism and disappointments, then we can too.

Farmers are great at this – you have so much love and money tied up in farming it is really hard to walk away from it. I am the same about preaching and nursing. How else could I pay my bills!

But it is so easy to lie down on the job when it comes to spiritual matters! Those “bills” don’t come in the mail. There are no deadlines on dealing with unforgiveness, anger, strife, lust, prayerlessness, etc. We can harbor that garbage in our hearts forever – and some people do.

My dad used to sing the old gospel song “We’ll Understand It Better.” Verse 4: “Temptations, hidden snares often take us unawares. And our hearts are made to bleed for many a thoughtless word or deed. And we wonder why the test when we try to do our best, but we’ll understand it better by and by.”

Jesus was successful in part because He was goal-oriented. 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” To scorn is to have extreme, often indignant, contempt for someone or something; utter disdain. (NASB: “despised”) The NLT translates 12:2 “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy He knew would be His afterward. Now He is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven.”

The “blame-game” is interesting when it comes to our belief. Sometimes we feel like the source of all our problems is the devil – and sometimes we blame God for everything. Now and then we will admit that we may be part of the problem. Either way, it is best to fix the problem instead of the blame. In Romans 12:4-13 we look at the Lord’s discipline. Now that is an interesting idea, that God would disciple me? Yep! He does that! Another word for “discipline” is disciple – or train. In other words, God is training us! That does not sound near as bad as “being disciplined!” Yet it is the same thing.

So when God puts you or me through some tough circumstances we are to be grateful for the training! So… (Verses 4-6)

Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline -do not lose heart when the Lord rebukes you.

The Lord disciplines those He loves -and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son (or daughter; child)

Verse 7: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His child.

Verse 9: We respect our parents for disciplining us – and we disciple/train our children

God admits that discipline is not fun at the moment – in fact, it is painful! However, it will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been TRAINED by it!

This same idea is presented when Jesus talked about pruning in John 15:1,2: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

In the book, “Secrets of the Vine” by Bruce Wilkinson (Prayer of Jabez) the author is talking about pruning. He quotes a horticultural bulletin. “The vine’s ability to produce growth increases each year, but without intensive pruning the plan weakens and its crop diminishes. Mature branches must be pruned hard to achieve maximum yields.”

“I am the vine… you are the branches…” Wilkinson notes, “While early pruning is mostly about your outward activities and priorities, mature pruning is about your values and personal identity. God moves in close for more intensive pruning because by now you are really ready to produce.”

Always remember that God is not out to hurt us! He is out to train us, and He will do the training the most practical, loving way there is. Many of my patients through the years have only come to believe what I teach them about sterile technique because they did not listen and got a nasty, painful staph aureus infection. The choice, my friend, was not mine, but theirs by default because they did not follow the teachings of the experts.

As we close this message I must ask… are you following the teachings of God? They really do work!